bristol games hub

June Bristol Games Hub newsletter is out now

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We’ve just sent out the June edition of the Bristol Games Hub newsletter to our subscribers.

You can read it with this link here!

If you’d like to catch up on the newsletters from previous months, here’s some handy links for you to do so:

May BGH Newsletter

April BGH Newsletter

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March Bristol Games Hub Newsletter OUT NOW!

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The March edition of the Bristol Games Hub newsletter is out now for your reading delectation.

We’ve got RICO action, Mars Horizon card game kickstarter success reports, and some news about the upcoming Pitch Event we’ve got coming to Bristol.

Have a read yourself right here!

Fancy signing up to get the latest news from the Bristol Game Dev scene fresh in your inbox every month? Sign up here!

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February Newsletter Now Available!

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The February newsletter for the Bristol Games Hub is now out and about in people’s inboxes. This month’s issue has stories from Auroch Digital, Groundshatter and hot news about some upcoming Megagames action.

You can check out this month’s issue by clicking HERE!

If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to the monthly newsletter by clicking here

Cheers!

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Unofficial UK Games Fund Workshop – Monday 11th April, 7pm

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Note: this is not an official UK Games Fund event, nor will anyone from the fund be present.

The UK Games Fund is a newly established grant from UK Games Talent and Finance CIC with the aim of helping to develop the UK games development industry, particularly those in the early stages. 

Grants of up to £25,000 will be awarded to help new and young development businesses create working prototype games. If you have a project which is further along the development process which needs support, they are also going to be awarding a limited number of grants for up to £50,000 and will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

For full information and how to apply click here.

To support this, Bristol Games Hub is running a one off workshop for applicants and those interested in applying.

UK Games Fund Workshop – Monday 11th April, 7pm

The UK Games Fund recently held a series of workshops in Edinburgh, London, and Manchester, James Parker of Ground Shatter and the Bristol Games Hub was able to go along and hear in more detail the assessment criteria for applications. With the cooperation of the UK Games Fund itself, he has been able to get hold of the slides from the presentation and will be doing a “bootleg” version of the workshop at the Bristol Games Hub. If you are applying or thinking or applying, then this is an ideal opportunity to ideal more about how best of focus your time and effort when it comes to making your application.

If you are planning to attend, please familiarize yourself with the details of the fund and how to apply  the link below first. We will be looking more closely at the assessment criteria and rather than covering the publicly available information here, so an understanding of what is required before attending the presentation is essential:

www.ukgamesfund.com/how-to-apply/

If you have any questions please bring them along with you and James will do his best to answer them.

For more information or to RSVP go to the Meetup Page.

 

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June Newsletter

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Bristol Games Hub Newsletter

The latest updates from the hub, news from Bristol & SW developers, jobs, opportunities & events.

Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit space for games and play. We run this newsletter, host events and also rent desk space at a cost price with no strings attached so you can get on and create amazing games. Contact debbie at aurochdigital dot com for more information or with news items for the next newsletter and let us know if you have any news you would like sharing in the next one by 15th July please!

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 27th August, 7.30pm

We’ll give you more info on what they will be closer to the time, but stick the date in your diaries! If you have a suggestion for a talk, drop us an email!

Games Hub News:

BGH Marketing Group Meetup
The Hub marketing group, an informal meet-up of people to talk about the means and ways to market games, is meeting on Wednesday 17th at 7.30pm. We’re talking Reddit & Facebook this time plus a general chat. If you want to come along, please email tom at aurochdigital dot com so we know you’re coming as numbers are limited! If you can’t make it, we’ve got an email discussion group too here.

Going to Develop: Brighton?
We’re putting together an informal dinner for developers, on the evening of the Tuesday 14th. If you are interesting in coming for some food, drop us an email to debbie at aurochdigital dot com. Spaces are limited, so we can’t promise anything!

Monday 22nd June: Unity Meetup – More Procedural Meshes!
Full info is below in events. Info page is here.

SW Freelancer/Company Dev Directory
If you’re looking for people to help on a project, or you are available for work – put your details in. Please only list info you’re happy to have in the public domain:http://bit.ly/bghdirectory

SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find roles and post new openings here…

Dev Scene News

Pocket Gamer Connects – San Francisco

After successes in London, Helsinki, and Bangalore, Pocket Gamer Connects is going stateside and bringing the premier mobile-focused B2B event to San Francisco on the 7th and 8th of July. More information is available at pgconnects.com, and you can keep up with the event on #PGCSanFran. If you’re headed out there, contact Bristol-based journalist Peter Willington, who will be in attendance.

More info links:
http://www.pgconnects.com/
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pgcsanfran
Or contact Peter on; peter.willington at steelmedia dot co dot uk

Creative Gaming Award

PLAY15 festival introduces the new ‘Creative Gaming Award’ You can submit concepts, alpha and/or beta for any game that deals with the medium in a creative way. Categories are;
– Most Creative Game
– Most Innovative Newcomer
Deadline is 15th July and there is no cost to enter and winner gets €3000! Full info on this PDF.

Auroch Digital

First off, a huge thanks to all who have signal-boosted the news of Dark Future: Blood Red States. We had great coverage from PC Gamer, Kotaku, Game Debate, Rock Paper Shotgun, Pocket Tactics and many more! We’ve also announced the winner of our Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night competition – to write the best 80s action movie style review!  We’re also recruiting and have a jobs page on our site now, which can be found here and below.

Twice Circled

Twice Circled, “I released the Big Pharma beta earlier this month. It’s a game about running your own pharmaceutical company. I’ve been astounded by the response from Youtubers/streamers with some really high profile people covering it, including Northern Lion and Sips from The Yogscast. Despite a few graphical bugs and some performance problems, the general reception has been overwhelmingly positive and I couldn’t be happier. The full release on Steam is planned for later this year. For further information, head over to the official website.”

Jobs & Opportunities

Auroch Digital

We have now filled the Producer role (and welcome Kelly Venables to the team!) We’ve still got open vacancies for an experienced programmer and an office manger/book keeper! http://www.aurochdigital.com/jobs/

Creative Youth Network

Creativeyouthnetwork.org.uk do great work with young people and are looking for a paid mentor to help a talented upcoming game developer – anyone interested?

Events Diary

Games Hub Marketing Group (June 17th 7.30pm)

Join us at Bristol Games Hub for a peer learning session about how to tell fans about our games. We’ll be looking at social media and Reddit. Email tom at auroch digital dot com if you want to come along!

Lunchtime Talk: Bringing computing into the real world (1pm Friday 19 June – Pervasive Media Studio)

We all love our computers, but generally they are mostly something we keep indoors. In this week’s talk, the PM Studio are delighted to welcome digital artist and creative coder Seb Lee-Delisle to the Studio. Seb will be showing us that really amazing things can happen when we take our computers into the elements.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/fri-19062015-100pm

Wales Games Developer Show (June 19th)

Pop over the border to see what the great devs in Wales have been up to and make some new connections! Info is here: http://www.walesgamesdevshow.org/

Unity Meetup – More Procedural Meshes! (June 22nd 7.30pm)

At Bristol Games Hub: The Unity meetup is back, on a Monday no less! This time around we have the second instalment on how to create 3D models from code ready for you. In this final part of his talk, Alexander will cover the following topics:

  • A short recap on creating procedural meshes to introduce newcomers to the topic and provider a refresher to everyone who attended last time
  • UV coordinates & Texturing. How to put pretty pictures on the surfaces of your meshes.
  • Bezier curves. Create smooth curves to define surfaces or paths
  • Delaunay Triangulation. Turn an arbitrary series of points into a surface with Triangle.Net

Signup to the meetup can be found on our meetup page:
http://www.meetup.com/Bristol-Unity-Game-Developers-Meetup/events/223161687/

Board Game Night (1st July, 7.30pm)

Join us at Bristol Games Hub on 1st July to play amazing board games. Bring a title along and/or join in another game. All welcome – email tom at aurochdigital dot com if you want to come along.

Lunchtime Talk: Hardware Startups, Manufacturing, and the Far East: a how to (1pm Friday 17 July – Pervasive Media Studio)

This week the PM Studio welcomes back product designer, maker, manufacturing engineer and 3D printing enthusiast Richard de Lancey. He was nominated for Stuff Magazine’s Design of the Year award for his work on AlphaSphere and is currently running his third startup business; DELCO – a design and manufacture agency based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/fri-17072015-100pm

Quick Links

Thanks all!

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News Update! Raise Finance for your Creative Business

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A couple more bits of news! First is this…

Helping you to raise finance for your creative business

Turning a bright idea into a commercial success can be a challenge, especially for a creative business. Creative England and the Creative Industries Council are running a free event to help you learn how to access different forms of finance and grow your company.

The event features:
Revolution Software’s Charles Cecil MBE. Find out how he raised £100,000s through crowd funding.

  • Panellists include:
    Phil Geraghty – MD, Crowdfunder – Crowdfunder has raised £1.5m for campaigns since launching, and has the potential to help you too.
  • Darren Westlake – CEO, Crowdcube – With Crowdcube, Darren is determined to solve the lack of financing options for small businesses. He started his first company aged 26 and has since successful built and sold two companies
  • Jenny Tooth – CEO, of the UK Business Angels Association. Jenny has over 20 years’ experience in helping SMEs access investment.
  • Irene Graham – MD of the British Banking Association. Irene works specifically with SMEs to help them navigate the financial landscape.
  • Caroline Norbury MBE – CEO of Creative England, an organisation that has invested over £14,400,000 into the games, TV, film and digital media industries.
  • Sarah Thirtle – Head of Business and lending programmes for Creative United, specialist in finance for the creative industry.

Taking place at Facebook, London, on March 19th. Click here to see the full schedule and to book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/finance-your-creative-business-tickets-15974293542

Second is:

Bristol Media have a survey up – help them out if you can by completing it! https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BristolMediaBarometer

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November Newsletter – How to Start a Games Studio…

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Special Offer on New Desks! Bristol Games Hub is offering 5 desks to new residents at half-price for the first month ie just £55 (that’s internet, all bills, tea &coffee and of course a desk and chair). Please email Debbie if you’re interested at debbie at aurochdigital dot com

SW Freelancer/Company Dev Directory
If you’re looking for people to help on a project, or you are available for work, just add and update your details. Please only list info you’re happy to have in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory
SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find and post new opportunities here…

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 27th November, 7.30pm – New Starts! level 1 Begins! Four amazing talks about kicking it all off!

How to Start a Games Studio
Auroch Digital’s Tomas Rawlings will share his top tips for how to start your own games development studio. Whether you’re thinking of taking the leap or already on the road to Indie Stardom, there will be pointers from over 10 years running his own studios to help you along.

Green Capital Digital Challenge – Find out all about it!
Debbie, producer of the Digital Challenge, will talk about this great opportunity to take part in an amazing gamejam/hack event where the best game/app will win £50,000 to develop it. More info here too.

WebStart Bristol
Mike Jackson, Founder and CEO of Bristol based incubator WebStart Bristol will talk about his programme based at the Engine Shed and the challenges and opportunities of getting further investment.

Kickstarter Top Tips
Constance Fleuriot will share her knowledge on using crowdfunding to support your game project, after attending a Kickstarter presentation organised by TIGA in London. Constance is about to launch her own call for funds to develop a game, Lux & The Shadowmaker, as part of Creative England’s Queen Of Code initiative with Crowdfunder UK.

Unity Developer Group – 24th November, 7.30pm

For this month’s talk, Unity meetup members David and Jeremy have stepped up to take you on a whirlwind deconstruction of the development of their kids App:  Alpine Train 3D  “We are going to whizz through loads of topics from Unity techniques and bespoke tools to monetisation. We want to share with you all that we have learned along the way and hopefully inspire you to get your idea out there too. There will be something for everyone in this talk, as we cover the whole process of development, publishing and marketing all within about an hour”  Ambitious!

P.S. If you’d like to give a talk at a Unity meetup, just get in touch.

Dev Scene News

Join Bristol Games Hub!

The Bristol games hub is a non-profit that offers very cheap & flexible dev space – £110 per desk per month. That’s everything – rates, internet, desk itself, tea, coffee, access to meeting rooms, events etc. Plus you’re in a supportive community of fellow devs to chat with and share knowledge. There is no contract and you can expand/contract the number of desks on a per month basis as your project needs change. Contact geoff at aurochdigital dot com for more info or to book a time to visit the space.

Don’t Die, Mr. Robot! for PSVita – made in Weston-super-Mare

The game was released on 29th October for PSVita in the EU, and 4th November for the Americas. It’s an arcade style dodge-em-up with loads of game modes, unlockables and a rather tasty soundtrack made by us too. You can learn more about our game here: http://infinitestategames.com/games/ddmr/Infinite State Games is a two man team based in Weston-super-Mare.  We have developed the game and published it entirely by ourselves, and hope to bring it next to iOS platforms while working on our next release for PSVita. If you want any more information or maybe would be interested in a talk from us don’t hesitate to ask. All the best, Team ISG.

Victory at Sea TIGA Win!

Evil Twin Artworks’ WWII Naval battle game – Victory At Sea was nominated in two categories at the 2014 TIGA Awards. The game ended up winning the Best Action/Adventure by a Small Studio Award at the event on London’s Southbank.

Auroch Digital

One of our newsgames, NarcoGuerra, has been nominated for a Media Innovation Award. Fingers crossed! Full info here
We have also announced our latest Games Workshop collaboration – Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night. More info here and a nice article on RPS!  We also have other exciting news but that’ll have to wait til next month when we can talk about it publicly 😉 Auroch is thriving and now has a permanent staff team of 13.

Force Of Habit

We’ve released two updates to Friendship Club since the last newsletter, adding a new character and the ability to play in teams. Get your 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 1 (or even 2 vs 1 vs 1) on everyone! We may be hosting a small gathering in our studio for the next Ludum Dare. Shoot me an email if interested as we have limited space: ashley@forceofhab.it

Opposable Games

Opposable Games have had an exciting month, starting with winning 2 awards at the Sparkies: the ‘Good’ Award for Pesky gNATS, which uses game environments to assist adolescents with anxiety issues, and their managing director Ben Trewhella winning the ‘Individual Contribution to Technology‘.

Opposable also announced a partnership with Motion Experiential to create some awesome Virtual Reality experiences, and are in the early stages of organising the SouthWestVR conference that will take place on February 26 2015, showcasing everything that is most awesome with Virtual Reality, and put Bristol and Bath in the center stage of this new exciting technology. They have also begun full production of their multi-screen (and now Virtual Reality based) game Salvaged, and in doing so welcome three new members to the team – Thomas Greener and Rob Brooks as developers, and Mike Parker who is joining the 3d team.  Opposable are on the lookout for volunteers / temp staff who are able to help out with virtual reality events, and thinking about hiring for a sales manager if the right person came along, interested people please get in touch via jobs@opposablegames.com

RTS Awards Open for Entries

The Royal Television Society in the West of England is calling for submissions for the 2014/15 RTS WoE Awards. There are interactive/games categories. All entries must have been broadcast or published between 1st December 2013 and 1st December 2014. Submission forms and a list of categories can be downloaded from the RTS website: www.rts.org.uk/bristol DEADLINE for submissions is Monday 1st December 2014. The Awards Gala will be held on Sunday March 8th 2015 at Bristol Old Vic, more details in the New Year.

Jobs & Opportunities

Green Capital Gamejam/Hack Event – £50,000 for best game/app! (Application Deadline 4th December)

Bristol 2015, the company established to facilitate Bristol’s year as European Green Capital, is asking Europe’s brightest minds to identify new ways that software can be used to tackle environmental challenges in cities in the European Green Capital Digital Challenge. This will include a 48-hour Digital Challenge Hack Weekend on the 6-8 February hosted during Digital Bristol Week, produced by the BBC. This two stage challenge will see teams of developers compete for the chance to scoop cash prizes of up to £50,000 to stimulate innovation in the development of software applications and games, addressing five environmental challenge areas: energy, transport, food, resources and nature.

Teams can find out more information and register to take part now at:www.bristol2015.co.uk/digitalchallenge to express your interest in being selected to attend as a team. The deadline for expressions of interest is 1 January 2015 and the selected teams will be notified by 16 January 2015.
For moreinfo see http://www.bristol2015.co.uk/digitalchallenge or emaildebbie@aurochdigital.com

The Writing Platform Bursary 2015

There are two bursaries of £4000, available for writers and technologists to embark on a writing – or writing-related – collaboration over a period of three months.  This is a fantastic opportunity for writers and technologists to collaborate, experiment and learn together, and to make work they wouldn’t be able to make on their own. Writers and technologists can apply individually or in pairs. The programme is open to UK residents aged 18 and over. The deadline to apply is Thursday 4th December. More info:http://www.thewritingplatform.com/bursary2015/

Develop.me Training Courses

</develop.me> are providers of web design and development training for businesses and individuals, from beginners through to industry professionals. Founded by industry experts they are funded by Creative Skillset and supported by Creative Skills Hub. They will be running workshops and short courses focusing on the many facets of web development. From introductions to the fundamentals of web development through to specialist tools of the trade for professional developers. Up coming courses/events are:
– Introduction to Web with HTML & CSS
– Getting Started with WordPress: Installing, Theming and Plugins
– Version Management with Git and GitHub

Events

Green Capital Digital Challenge Informal Chat (20th Nov, 6pm)

Bristol 2015 has just launched the Green Capital Digital Challenge. The Challenge is seeking professional teams to develop new software to address 5 environmental themes. More details can be found here. This meetup is for individuals looking to form a team to take part. If you have creative, tech, project management or green skills and experience this should be a great opportunity for you. Come along and meet other interested people over a beer or coffee at the PM Studio. More info here.

TIGA’s Cardiff GameDev Night

It’s on the 20th November. Sign up here!

Quick Links

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Bristol Games Hub Newsletter October 2014

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Below is news from the growing Bristol & South West games development scene. Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit space for games and play. We run this newsletter, host events and also rent amazingly cheap desk space at a cost price with no strings attached so you can get on and create amazing games. Contact geoff ataurochdigital.com for more information or with news items for the next newsletter and let us know any news for the next one by 15th November please!

SW Freelancer/Company Dev Directory
If you’re looking for people to help on a project, or you are available for work – put your details in. Please only list info you’re happy to have in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory

SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find roles and post new openings here…

Bath Digital Festival 27th Oct – 5th Nov

There is no social this month as many of us are taking part in Bath Digital Festival. So please come along and support the two games events at the festival, both on the 29th Oct:

Gaming for Good (29th Oct, 12.30pm-1.30pm @ The Auditorium, City of Bath College)

Games are doing much more now than just fun – they are educating, becoming therapy and helping to tackle serious problems. Non-gamers often only see games in over-hyped tabloid headlines casting them in a bad light. However with around one in three of our fellow citizens now playing games, this session takes a second look at an industry that has grown in scope, subject matter and relevance. Join us to find out how Auroch Digital have been turning news into games, how Knowle West Media Center used games to talk about domestic violence and accessibility expert Ian Hamilton on how technology can be built to open them up to wider audiences.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/games-for-good-the-panel-tickets-12707294861

Virtual Reality : Oculus Rift (29th Oct, 1.30pm – 5pm @ Roper Reception, City of Bath College)

Virtual reality is a buzzword once more, but this time round the technology is there to back it up. Ever since Oculus VR took to Kickstarter and raised a record-breaking $2 million, interest has been steadily rising in a vast and eclectic range of fields. Psychologists, therapists, games companies, developers, architects, movie studios and some company called Facebook, who paid a modest $2 billion for Oculus VR this year, have been significantly adapting to the incredible advantage offered by VR.

SouthWest VR will be giving you the chance to see for yourself just how powerful and immersive this technology is by demoing games and experiences from a range of developers including Opposable Games.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtual-reality-oculus-rift-tickets-12707349023

Other Hub News

Games Tournament Idea
Who’s the best gamer? We’re looking to try out a games night or two at the hub. We’re also taking suggestions for games people would like to see played at these LANs and tournaments – or even board games.  Please email matt@voondaba.com with game suggestions under Subject ‘LAN Game Suggestion’.  Ideally with fairly short rounds to easily allow a tournament to occur in one night. Plus let us known when we should run these events! http://strawpoll.me/2786226

22nd October – U, I & Unity: Hands-on the new UI system:

This months Unity meetup will feature super-special guest presenter Alejo, who will be taking us through the in-beta GUI features in Unity. He has this to say When the 4.6 beta was released I jumped on it viciously to try out the new, long awaited, UI system. After some tinkering I’m ready to share some of it’s wonders for those of you that are lazy or busy enough no to try it for yourselves. That’s ok buddies, the new UI system is easy to use and likes lazy and busy people. Also likes beer (so bring some).

I’ll be making a tour more than an extensive explanation. Showing some examples on the shiny new buttons, the event system, input module and other sweet treats it has to offer. Also some things that are not working yet and features that are still changing across the beta sub-releases.  If you already have any specific suggestion for a use case or an example you would like to see shown, don’t wait until the show is on. You can do it right now, here in the comments

As usual we will be at the Bristol Games Hub, 77 Stokes Croft BS1 3RD, on 22nd Oct at 7.30pm, where we will talk, laugh, cry, share tall tales of life and love, and then do a meetup about Unity or something….

Dev Scene News

BGH Games Marketing Group

We just had the first meeting of the games marketing group and it was a great success! Lots of great ideas exchanged for marketing our indie games. There is now a discussion list for the group: http://bit.ly/BGHmarketing – which you are welcome to join. Sam has already, very kindly, adapted his thoughts into a document, on building a content strategy. There will be another meet-up soon too: watch this space!

Aardman Animations

Sheep Stack – A new official Shaun the Sheep game from Aardman Animations!
Sheep Stack is the new game from Shaun the Sheep, where flying by the seat of your pants has never been so much fun! Using a pair of massive pants, launch Shaun’s flock into the sky and stack ‘em high to help them reach a plate of doughnuts waiting at the top. But watch out – the slightest wobble and your woolly wonder will crash to the ground!
For the trailer please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fFhPJlaD04 Available at iTunes, Google Play and Amazon

Auroch Digital

We recently celebrated a year since our first Games Workshop & Steam title,Chainsaw Warrior, was released. To celebrate we made a Zombie Gif Party! Plus there is a video of Tom’s keynote at #NewsGamesHack this year.

Twice Circled

Last month I announced my latest game Big Pharma – a game about running your own pharmaceutical empire! Just days later we took it to EGX London and gave punters their first experience of the game. The response so far has been really positive and I’ve been inundated with feedback and suggestions for things people would like to see in the game. For more information, check out Episode 1 of the Official Video Blog. It’s a bit of a slow start so if you’re just interested in pretty graphics then jump to around 15 minutes in.
http://www.twicecircled.com/2c/

Force of Habit

A new release of Timmy Bibble’s Friendship Club is coming this Friday. Character select and other gubbins. We’ll post a blog up when it goes live, and probably take it to the next BVGS Main Quest if you want to try it yourself! Oh, and Ashley has been shortlisted for “Best Coder/Developer” in this year’s SPARKies awards – huzzah!

Sparkies Shortlist Announced!

Huge well done to all the games companies and individuals shortlisted in the Sparkies awards. It’s great to see games so well represented. Also a well done to… US!!! We were shortlised for best service provider.

Bertram Fiddle launching on iOS the 4th December

At Rumpus we are currently busy finishing the first episode of The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle, an episodic point and click game for mobile and desktop. So if you fancy a quirky take on Victorian London inhabited by strange characters with even stranger noses then check out the App Store at the start of December to get your fix of dark humored murder mystery.

 

Jobs & Opportunities

Greenshoots Round 2 – DEADLINE MONDAY (Oct 20th)

Creative England are still accepting applications for Greenshoots Round 2, giving up to 10 studios the chance to work with Microsoft to get their game off the ground. With a cash injection of up to £25,000 per studio, the fund aims to help studios develop original IP into a money-making reality. In a change to the first iteration of Greenshoots, investors and publishers are now involved from day one which means the supported studios have the potential to receive additional investment from the start of their project. Applicants can now also apply to develop for Xbox One with the programme no longer limited to tablet and mobile development. For more information and to apply click here. For any questions on the application process, contact ella.waving@creativeengland.co.uk

 

Events

U, I & Unity: Hands-on the new UI system (22nd Oct/7.30pm)

Great guest speaker! See the top of this newsletter or here.

Creative Territories (11th Nov)

The Creative territories project about gamemaker collaborations that has the Bristol Games Hub as a partner is having its final event in November 11th at the Watershed. If you’re interested in coming along to take part in the discussion email Patrick.Crogan@uwe.ac.uk
Full info here: http://creativeterritories.dcrc.org.uk/mapping-the-collective-potentials-of-indie-game-collaborative-dynamics/

Board Games Night (13th Nov 7.30pm)

We’re looking to have another board game night on 13th Nov. Email tom at aurochdigital.com if this date is good for you!

Quick Links

Thanks all!

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Level-up! Bristol Games Hub Sept. Newsletter

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Below is news from the growing Bristol & South West games development scene. You find news from the hub, news from Bristol & SW developers then jobs, opportunities & events.

Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit space for games and play. We run this news letter, host events and also rent desk space at a cost price with no strings attached so you can get on and create amazing games. Contact geoff at aurochdigital.com for more information or with news items for the next newsletter and let us news for the next one by 15th October please!

SW Freelancer/Company Dev Directory
If you’re looking for people to help on a project, or you are available for work – put your details in. Please only list info that you’re happy to have in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory

SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find roles and post new openings here…

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: Thursday 25th September, 7.30pm

This month we’ve got: Auroch Digital’s Abhishek Sagi shares the basics of his award winning new technology for making cloth in games!

“Even today in video games, accuracy and level of detail for cloth in-game is mostly coarse due to complex non linear physical properties, and computing power necessary to simulate it real-time. The talk will provide an introduction to developing robust, scalable and parallelized soft body simulation frameworks for real-time and offline rendering.”

So join us on the 25th September at 7.30pm – we’ve got a buzzer now! The entrance is off Thomas Street, just up from the junction of Thomas St/Stokes Croft, above DHS Heating.

Games Hub News:

9th October 6pm – Games Marketing Chat
Making games is one things, selling them another… With around 200+ games PER DAY being released, how do you let players know about your creation? This informal group is going to discuss strategies, ideas and more. Contact tom at aurochdigital dot com for more info or just come to the hub that evening.

OpenCo! Visit the Hub!
The Games Hub is taking part in the OpenCo event where the doors are thrown open and you can come and check us out and what we do! If you’re really desperate for some Opposable action though…catch us at OpenCo at the hub on 2nd October:
http://uk.openco.us/bath-bristol/

Dev Scene News

Queen of Code

Creative England and Crowdfunder.co.uk have joined in order to fund England’s top female game developers and freelancers via an innovative crowdfunding campaign. Female developers are asked to submit their campaigns, and the first 3 to hit their target will each receive a £5k boost from Creative England. More info here:www.crowdfunder.co.uk/queenofcode

GamesLab Campus

Creative England have teamed up with PlayStation® on an incubator and accelerator programme called GamesLab Campus. Creative England’s GamesLab Campus programme will invest a maximum of £250,000 into five Games companies (up to £50,000 each) to support the development of new and innovative entertainment experiences on PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®Vita. More details here:http://gameslab.creativeengland.co.uk/gameslab/campus/

GamesLab South West Masterclasses

GamesLab Masterclasses will be running in Bristol 13th – 15th October. The classes offer 3, day sessions on; Player Research, Narrative Development, and SCRUM Agile.  Early bird tickets are £50 (available until 29th September) with normal price being £100. More details here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gameslab-south-west-masterclasses-tickets-11803292967

Opposable Games

We recently published a short showreel with a whole host of our work on, so if you haven’t had the chance to check it out then do please take a look and pass it on. It features some pretty sweet music from local boy labgrownmusic and some rather tasty editing from another helpful local by the name of Jim Roper. A lot of what we’re doing is classified right now; if we told you we’d have to kill you. Sorry.

If you’re really desperate for some Opposable action though…catch us at OpenCo at the hub on 2nd October, or under the SouthWest VR monicker at the Watershed’s Sci Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder event on 25th October, or the Bath Digital Festivalon 27th October.

Auroch Digital

We’ve been giving our website a bit of a much needed re-vamp: check it out here!http://aurochdigital.com – oh and we also welcomed the 13th employee of Auroch, Mark, who joins our busy dev team!

Bertram Fiddle going on an adventure to EGX London

Rumpus will be at EGX London to showcase our point and click game staring leading Victorian explorator Bertram Fiddle. Visitors will be able to explore brand new locations, share a cup of tea with Sherlock Holmes and be dazzled by our wide array of fantastical moustaches and quirky noses. So if you are at EGX feel free to drop by, and give the game a go at our booth.

Get #hookedonmusic

Calling all music lovers. Last chance to help science figure out what makes pop music catchy. #hookedonmusic is a citizen science game developed by The Reading Room for the Museum of Science and Industry and supported by the Wellcome Trust. www.hookedonmusic.org.uk
PEACEapp

Have a great game about facilitating peace or an idea for one? Submit it to PEACEapp, a competition that aims to showcase the work of developers who examine peace and promote games as venues for cultural dialogue and conflict management. Send your entry here by the October 15 deadline.
http://www.unaoc.org/peaceapp/enter/

Events

Chaos Unpub: Playtest Event for Board & Card Games

On Saturday, 4th October we’ll be dedicating ourselves to playtesting unpublished tabletop games and providing valuable feedback in an attempt to bring those designs one-step closer to publication. We invite game designers, publishers, players, retailers and artists from all over the country to attend the first Chaos Unpub event…and it’s FREE!  Hosted by Chaos Publishing, this event will be taking place at the Christian Malford Village Hall where we can open our doors for up to 150 budding designers/playtesters. We will be prepared with plenty of available parking at the venue and food available throughout the day. The event will start at 11:00 and run until 20:00. We hope to see you there!
Please find the full details at: http://www.meetup.com/Playtest/events/202898032/
…and also on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/659760337472982/

Bath Digital Festival – Gaming for Good

Games are doing much more now than just fun – they are educating, becoming therapy and helping to tackle serious problems.

Non-gamers often only see games in over-hyped tabloid headlines casting them in a bad light. However with around one in three of our fellow citizens now playing games, this session takes a second look at an industry that has grown in scope, subject matter and relevance. Join us to find out how Auroch Digital have been turning news into games, how Knowle West Media Center used games to talk about domestic violence and accessibility expert Ian Hamilton on how technology can be built to open them up to wider audiences.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/games-for-good-the-panel-tickets-12707294861

Shadowing: Come and play in the light

As the sun sets and the street lights come on, traces of those who have passed under the lights are played throughout the city, re-animating the streets. As you walk under the light, the shadow of the previous visitor walks beside. While you interact or react to the shadow, your movements and actions are recorded, becoming the shadow for the next visitor. If a visitor remains under the lamp, the lamp reaches further back in time, playing back the shadows of its previous visitors. Shadowing will appear in locations across the city, and linger until the end of October. Shadowing.cc
http://shadowing.cc/

Lunchtime Talk: Nikki Pugh’s Colony: Friday, 19 September 201413:00 to 14:00

As part of her ongoing project Colony, artist Nikki Pugh has been in residence at the Pervasive Media Studio over the Summer constructing panicked heartbeats, twitchy tails and slinky vertebrae. Join us for a lunchtime talk (and possibly a walk afterwards) as all these are brought together to form landscape-reactive ‘creatures’, carried/worn by participants and designed to affect how we experience moving through the city.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/project/colony

Lunchtime Talk: Oscar Raby Friday, 24 October 2014 13:00 to 14:00

In 1973 Oscar Raby’s father witnessed the execution of a group of prisoners captured by the military regime in Chile, the army he was a part of. Raby, a multimedia designer and visual artist, turned to the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset to tell his father’s story in Assent. Come along to hear about Oscar’s journey in interactive storytelling and the making of the innovative and moving Assent project. This talk is guest presented by Mandy Rose, director of UWE’s Digital Cultures Research Centre.
http://oscarraby.net/wp/assent/

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Bristol Games Hub August Newsletter

Posted on Updated on

Below is news from the growing Bristol & South West games development scene. You find news from the hub, news from Bristol & SW developers then jobs, opportunities & events.

Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit space for games and play. We run this news letter, host events and also rent desk space at a cost price with no strings attached so you can get on and create amazing games. Contact geoff at aurochdigital.com for more information or with news items for the next newsletter and let us news for the next one by 15th September please!

SW Freelancer/Company Dev Directory
If you’re looking for people to help on a project, or you are available for work – put your details in. Please only list info that you’re happy to have in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory

SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find roles and post new openings here…

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 28th August, 7.30pm

Join us for 2 fascinating talks!  

POPBOX #shareyourtalent

Calum Yuill from Picton Street Media will be demoing a user generated social video gaming platform prototype/wireframe with a view to seeking criticism and feedback from the development community.

Automate, Streamline, Win! Creating custom workflows for content heavy games

At Rumpus we are currently creating The Adventurers of Bertram Fiddle, a point and click adventure game with tons of animation and dialogue. Since we are a small studio, a big focus has therefore been to reduce the workload when working with so much content. The topics covered include good workflow methodologies, automation, creating custom juicy workflows and doing other kinds of editor magic to accelerate your development.

So join us on the 28th August at 7.30pm – we’ve got a buzzer now! The entrance is off Thomas Street, just up from the junction of Thomas St/Stokes Croft, above DHS Heating.

Dev Scene News

Force Of Habit

Er, so much has happened! Earlier on in the month we released The Wonky Wagon update for Friendship Club (link), then last week we announced and released a game for OUYA called Neon Caves (link, link), and now today we’re announcing that our appetising debut Toast Time will be coming to Steam on August 27th!

We’re going to be at Insomnia 52 this weekend, and then flying over to Seattle for PAX Prime and releasing the game from there! Crazy. We’ll sadly be missing the next anti-social, so how about we throw Bristol a big games party when we’re back? Yeah? Cool. Ashley & Nick

Opposable Games

It’s Pesky gNats aplenty over at the Opposable Games side of the hub, so if you’ve got an interest in serious applications of the holiest of art forms (yes, we mean video games), then make sure you’re stalking for updates over at the Pesky gNats Twitter as there’s some really great content soon to come.
 
The first of our SouthWest VR events kicked off to great fanfare and glorious cupcakes complete with suitably jaw-dropped attendees. Drinks were drunk, talks were talked, wares were flaunted and hopefully some useful contacts were made by all. Luckily, nobody did any damage to themselves, gear or beer while flailing around on virtual rollercoasters, and that dreaded sim sickness didn’t rear its ugly head too much. The next event, planned to be bigger-er and better-er, will be announced through the SouthWest VR Twitter, Facebook and meetup group.
 

Opposable Games and SouthWest VR continued to fly the proverbial flag of virtual reality at the actual (real life) Balloon Fiesta, demonstrating just how much fun it is to be an elephant in a magic land of bouncy policemen (really). Further appearances from SouthWest VR and Opposable Games can be expected at OpenCO on 2nd October right here at the Bristol Games Hub, Bath Digital Festival on 29th October and as part of the Watershed’s Family Arts Festival on 25th October.

Auroch Digital

We’ve been asked to comment for some articles in the Guardian of late, coming off the back of our GameTheNews work:

iBeacons

We set up 100 iBeacons around Bristol – they’re in all of the major attractions (SS GB, Suspension Bridge, Bristol Museum etc).  Happy to let any dev’s have access to the network to try a game related exercise. Network was featured in the Evening Post and a few other online PR avenues. Do let me know if you want any further info etc. Additionally – do you want a beacon or 2 in there/ your office.  We’re building up a social networking/ discovery app for business too. Simon – simon at cpagroup.co.uk

Jobs & Opportunities

Aardman Digital

Aardman’s Digital team are on the look-out for talented, freelance developers with experience in the games and web industry. Specifically: Unity and Haxe Developers experienced in producing high-end mobile games and apps; and Drupal/ PHP developers. Please contact digital@aardman.com with your CV and examples of your work.

Playniac Needs an Artist

It’s not SW based, but they are lovely people! http://www.playniac.com/jobs/2d-artist/

Events

Monthly Unity Meetup

You now the drill people. It’s meetup time again! This month’s Unity meetup will again be of a more open format (unless someone have a talk they are burning to give in which case you are more than welcome!) So come and show of your new cool ice shader, that randomly generated level creator that will bewilder players for hours or your new VR 5D flight simulator. As always you are also welcome to bring up any Unity related issues you are having and see if the wisdom of the crowd can’t help you. As always at around 10pm we will head to the local pub so any problems we have not been able to help you with at least can be temporarily forgotten. Join us the 20rd August 7.30pm at Bristol Games Hub 77 Stokes Croft BS1 3RD. Signup happens through our meetup page. Hope to see you there!.

28th August @ Bristol Games Hub – POPBOX 

Calum Yuill from Picton Street Media will be demoing a user generated social video gaming platform prototype/wireframe with a view to seeking criticism and feedback from the development community. 7.30pm at the Game Hub, entry is free.

Playable Cities Conference – 10th/11th Sept

Featuring Google Creative Lab’s Tom Uglow, architect Usman Haque, artist Luke Jerram, Ogilvy’s Tara Austin and academics from the University of the West of England, this two-day international conference will explore the theme of the ‘Playable City’, asking what it might mean for citizens, urban planners, tech giants, small companies, artists and designers in imagining and making the cities of the future. On10 and 11 September, we will be bringing together a brilliant group of thinkers, makers, planners and civil disobedients to look at cities as playable places and ask the question: how do we make and unmake our future cities? The conference will feature playful interventions, networking, debate and discussion, artist commissions and an academic strand convened by the Digital Cultures Research Centre at UWE. For more information on the conference programme and speakers see; http://www.watershed.co.uk/playablecity/conference14/

VR TGO 2014 – 11th Sept.

A future gazing conference that will inspire and inform developers and businesses using and looking to use VR on its potential.  The conference will be looking where the future of VR is taking the entertainment and games industry while also looking see at this cutting edge technology can do for serious applications for automotive, modelling, training, marketing etc. Attendees will have the oppotunity to go hands on with both Sony’s Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift.  More info here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vrtgo-2014-vr-conference-tickets-11583525637

OpenCo – With Bristol Games Hub! 2nd Oct

What this space as the hub becomes part of the OpenCo national event – he’s the info so far! OpenCo is a community event spread across an entire city. Instead of going to a sterile hotel ballroom, attendees fan out to visit their selected companies’ headquarters. These “HostCO’s” are companies that are driving innovation through new business practices of open collaboration, open platforms, and an openness to new ideas and new business models. Hundreds of these companies open their doors during our festivals and share how they are trying to change the world and why.

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